Time-marking device for charging telephone calls



Dec. 24, 1957 c. A. R. LARSSON TIME-MARKING DEVICE FOR CHARGING TELEPHONE CALLS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 21. 1953 N f: A R

fv vs/v roR 0M4 flucasr Paras/r 4%?5104/ Dec. 24, 1957 TIME-MARKING DEVICE FOR CHARGING TELEPHONE CALLS Filed Oct. 21. 1953 c. A. R. LARSSON 2,817,573

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l'A/vzwrok 64R; flue ulr Fur-0:1? 1331104 we HM TIME-MARKING DEVICE FOR CHARGING TELEPHONE CALLS Carl August Rutger Larsson, Hagersten, Sweden, assignor to Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden, a corporation of Sweden Application October 21, 1953, Serial No. 387,381

Claims priority, application Sweden October 31, 1952 8 Claims. (Cl. 346-17) Debiting of charges for telephone calls is in the first place based on the length of the call. In order to have this length registered, devices have earlier been used for stamping the points of time for the start and end of the call. It has proved that this method takes a lot of time and, furthermore, it involves an extra operation for calculation and registering if the registering document is to be prepared afterwards in a punch-card machine or the like.

The present invention serves the purpose of making an apparatus which on a card or another document punches a hole, the position of which corresponds to the time during which the call has taken place. This will according to the invention be obtained by the path of the card being provided with a stop arranged to move during a call from a starting position along the card path, so that an inserted card will take a position corresponding to the length of the call.

The invention will be further described with reference to the attached drawing. Fig. 1 shows the time marking device viewed from the rear and Figs. 2-4 show side projections, whereby Fig. 2 illustrates the device in resting position, Fig. 3 the device connected to the driving member, and Fig. 4 the registering course and the zero setting of the device. Fig. 5 shows an example of a card which has been punched in the apparatus.

The apparatus is set up in a frame consisting of two side plates 1 and 2 kept together by the posts 3, 4, and 5, Figs. 1 and 2. Between the side plates there is a fixed take-up roller 6 on the post 4. Around said roller there is a loose steel ribbon 7, spirally wound in such a way that it strives to wind itself onto the roller. The other end of the ribbon is fastened on the periphery of a drum 8, Fig. 1, which is firmly connected with a shaft 9, Figs. 1 and 2, journalled in the side-plates 1 and 2. The shaft 9 also carries a cog-wheel 10 and a ratchet wheel 11. When the shaft 9 and thereby also the drum have a counter-clockwise rotation (according to Fig. 2), the steel ribbon is wound onto the drum from the roller 6. The steel ribbon is kept stretched between the drum and the roller and holds a practically straight path. When the drum 8 is released, the steel ribbon returns to the roller 6 on account of the spiral tension in the ribbon. The clockwise rotation of the drum is limited by a stop 12, which strikes against a stop 13. A stop is riveted to the steel ribbon 7 in the shape of a stop angle 14, which consequently will be moved upwards when the drum has a counter clockwise rotation.

At the rear of the frame there is a card path with the card funnel 16 fastened in such a position, that a card, which is inserted into the card funnel, is stopped against the stop angle 14. A die 17 with a circular hole is fastened at one edge of the card path. This hole is on a line with a punch 18, which is journalled in two ears in the side plate 1. The punch is held in pulledback position by a spring 19. Further, the punch is provided with a collar 20, which partly serves as a stop nit States Patent 0 Cir 2,817,573 Patented Dec. 24, 1957 for the return spring 19, and partly operates upon an arm 21 connected with a latch 22. The latter prevents clockwise rotation of the ratchet wheel 11 and thereby return motion of the drum 8. When the punch 18 is pressed forward, the latch 22 is moved out of engagement with the ratchet wheel 11, whereat the drum 8 returns to initial position. The latch 22, which is pressed against the ratchet wheel by a spring 23, is journalled on a tap 24 in the side plate 1.

The frame is supported by a shaft 25, connected with a switchboard panel 32, which is common to several apparatus placed side by side. The shaft is placed in semicircular grooves in the side plates 1 and 2, and the frame is kept pressed against the shaft by the spring 26, which is placed between a stud in the side-plate 1 and the shaft 25. The frame is prevented from moving around the shaft 25, partly by a stop 27, fastened to the switchboard panel 32, and partly by a roller 28 on a reversing lever 29, which rests against the rear part of the punch 18. The reversing lever 29 is journalled on a pin 30 in a switch frame 31, which is mounted in the switchboard panel 32. A continuously rotating driving shaft 33, which is common to several apparatus, runs in a notch in the side plates 1 and 2. On this driving shaft is mounted a spur pinion for each apparatus. This spur pinion is normally free from engagement with the cog-wheel 10 on the drum 8, that is when the reversing lever is in middle position, Fig. 2.

When at the beginning of a call the reversing lever 29 is put in locking position, as shown in Fig. 3, the apparatus is moved forward by the roller 28, which then rests against one edge of a recess 34. Further movement in forward direction is prevented by a stop 35 in the switchboard panel. The spur pinion 33 will now mesh with the cogwheel 10. The drum is thereby rotated counter clockwise and the steel ribbon 7 is wound onto the drum, whereby the stop angle 14 is continuously lifted. The ratio and the speed of the driving shaft is adjusted in such a way, that for one minute the stop angle 14 is lifted a length corresponding to one minute division on the registering card, Fig. 5. In case the call should be interrupted, the reversing lever is put back to the middle position, whereby the cogwheel 10 looses the mesh with the spur pinion 33. The stop 14 will then remain in the position to which it has been moved. When the lever is put in locking position again, the stop 14 begins to move.

When the call is finished the change over switch is first put in middle position. A registering card 36 is inserted into the card funnel against the stop angle 14. The change over is then turned to the position according to Fig. 4. Thereby the punch 18 presses by the roller 28 through the card 36 and the die 17. When the punch has penetrated the card, the latch 22 releases the ratchet wheel 11, and the steel ribbon 7 and the stop 14 return to the starting point. The change over lever is not locked in the position shown, but returns to the middle position.

For the indication of the time, which has passed during the call, a pointer 37 is arranged behind the card funnel. The mouth of the card funnel is made out of transparent material and, therefore, the pointer can easily be seen. Further, the mouth of the card funnel is provided with a suitable scale of degrees. The pointer 37 is journalled on a tap 38 and is kept to the side by a spring 39. One edge of the pointer, which thereby rests against a protruding part of the stop angle 14, is formed into a curve, which gives linear motion of the tip of the pointer in relation to the movement of the stop angle 14. When the stop 14 returns to the starting point, the

pointer is brought back to the starting point by the spring 39. The device can now be used for a new call.

I claim:

1. A time recording device for use in a telephone exchange to charge calls on 'a time basis, said device comprising a stationarily mounted guide .track for receiving a record card, a stop extending into said track and displaceable along'said track, the position of said stop controlling the elfective length .of the track for determining the position of a card in the track, drive means coacting with the stop for moving the latter along the track from a fixed starting position, control means for said drive means controlling :the starting and stopping of the drive means in accordance withthe length of a call to be recorded, restoring means coacting with said movable stop for returning the latter into its starting position, said restoring means including yieldable means loaded by the movement of said stop during a call, stationarily disposed marking means for marking a card in the track, the location of the marking on the card being indicative of the period of time elapsed during the call, and release means controlling said yieldable means and controlled by said marking means to release the yieldable means upon actuation of the marking means foreftecting the return of the stop intoits starting position.

2. A time recording device according to claim 1, wherein said control means for the drive means further control the marking means, said control means including a movable control member selectively movable into one end position starting the drive means and a second end position actuating the marking means.

3. A time recording device according to claim 2, wherein said control member is movable into an intermediate position for stopping the drive means upon an interruption of the call.

4. A time recording device according to claim 1, wherein said drive means comprise a drive shaft, a rotatable drum releasably coupled with said shaft for rotation thereby and a band supporting said stop and attached on one end to said drum to wind and unwind the band by rotation of the drum in the respective direction, winding and unwinding of the band effecting said movement of the stop along the track, and wherein said yieldable means of the restoring means is secured to the other end of the band for loading the yieldaole means upon rotation of the drum in the respective direction, actuation of the marking means releasing the drum coupling with the shaft whereby the loaded yieldable means re turns the stop into its starting position.

5. A time marking device according to claim 4, wherein said yieldable means comprise a spring loaded loading of the roll upon rotation of the drum in the respective direction.

6. A time marking device according to claim 5, and further comprising releasable locking means preventing a rotation of said drum in response to a loading of said roll, said locking means including ratchet teeth on the periphery of thedrum and a pawl biased into engagement with said teeth, said pawl coacting with said marking means for disengagement of the pawl from the teeth upon actuation of the marking means.

7. A time marking device according to claim 1, and further comprising visual indicating means including a pivotal pointer and a scale calibrated in units of time coacting with saidv pointer, said pointer being in engagement with said stop for pivoting by a movement of the stop along the track and having a configuration such that the angle of the pivotal movement of the pointer in response to the movement of the stop is in conformity with said calibration.

8. A plurality of time recording devices for use in a telephoneexchange to charge calls on a time basis, each device comprising a stationarily mounted guide track for receiving a record card, a stop extending into said track and displaceable along said track, the position of said stop controlling the effective length of the track for determining the position of a card in the track, drive means coacting with the stop for moving the latter along the track from a fixed starting position, and control means for said drive means controlling the starting and stopping of the drive means in accordance with the length of a call to be recorded, and stationarily disposed marking means for marking a card in the track, the location of the marking on the track being indicative of the period of time elapsed duringthe call, said drive means comprising a drive shaft common to all of said devices rotated at aztime controlled rate of rotation, and transmission means for transmitting rotation of the drive shaft to said stop to move the latter along the track, said transmission means being releasably coupled with said shaft, the couplingbetween the shaft and the stop being controllable by said control means, and the trans mission means of said devices being independently controllable by the controimeansof the respective device.

RiftlniE-KQ; in the file of this patent UNITE/p STATES PATENTS 

